Saved by the Mail, Part 2

The second trade pack that came in the mail yesterday was from Paul over at Carl Crawford Cards. I sent him some Rays cards, and one measly card of his 1973 want list (hopefully anyways, since I don't recall now seeing it when I packed up his cards for shipment) and I got a metric ton of 2002 Heritage in return. This really cut my want list down to size for 2002 Heritage.

I struggled to decide what cards to show and finally settled on those cards from players who, at a minimum, took a turn with the Yankees in 2011.


Okay, Millwood is a bit of a stretch,. He was signed by the Yankees during spring training, turned in 9 uninspiring innings at AAA, and was released. Not long after that he caught on with the BoSox, was similarly uninspiring at Pawtucket, and released again. He then signed with the Rockies and turned in 9 workmanlike starts with the big club at the close of the season.


Freddy was picked off the scrap heap and turned out to be a key part of the Yankees starting rotation with a 12-8 record and 3.62 ERA performance. I was pleased to see that the Yankees have signed him again for the 2012 campaign.


Though his 2011 line doesn't reflect it, Bartolo really stepped up when Phil Hughes hit the disabled list. He faded near the end of the year, but there was a stretch mid-season when he was a legitimate No. 3 starter for the Bombers. I really enjoyed watching him play. He has the endearing habit of playing catch with himself when sitting on the bench or when there was a delay in the game while he was in the mound. Just tosses the ball up over his head and lets it fall into his glove. Kinda like a Little Leaguer. I am hoping that the Yankees bring him back for 2012 as a long man, but there isn't much buzz, so I get the feeling they won't.


The Big Man. What is there to say about CC? I really think the ALDS with the Tigers might have turned out differently if the first game wasn't postponed after one and a half innings. Other than the first inning home run by Delmon Young, CC looked great. He had dealt four strikeouts and two weak ground outs in his two innings. When he took the mound again a few days later in Game 3, he just looked flat and was generally ineffective. But, that is the way it goes I guess.



Eric was solid as a backup infielder. He hasn't decided whether to retire yet and there was some interest on the Yankees part to bring him back. I can't blame them. Their other backup infielder, Eduardo Nunez, is a questionable defensive player. I wonder, though, how the Yankees winning the right to negotiate with Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima affects the 2012 roster. Who does it make more superfluous? Chavez or Nunez? Rumor has it that Nuney has been on the trade block, but nothing has happened yet. I guess time will tell.


Jones was a solid backup outfielder / platoon DH in 2011. The Yankees have shown interest in bringing him back. I would support it. He still has a little spark left in the bat and has a excellent glove.


The Captain!

In addition to the base cards, Paul sent over a near complete Classic Renditions insert set. I've included two of this set because the subjects both signed contracts with new teams this week after having played over a decade for one team: Buehrle with the White Sox and Pujols with the Cards.





Thanks, Paul. I hope your cards got to you by now and I remembered to include that 1973 card.

Saved by the Mail, Part 1

I was a little grumpy today. You see, today was the big card show up in OKC that is held every other month. I wasn't planning on spending much today, what with it being the holiday season and what not. But, the news of my impending unemployment changed my plan. It isn't that getting laid off is going to be catastrophic. Between severance and savings, I have a cushion to fall back on while I look for something new.

Indeed, in these tough economic times, I consider myself downright fortunate to not be in desperate straits like so many others. But, it does seem prudent to cut back on unnecessary spending for a while. And, despite the passion we all put into this hobby, buying cards isn't a necessary thing. But, to prove I can be as shallow as the next person, I did pout because I couldn't go to the card show. But that frown turned upside down when I opened the mail box and found not one, but two trade packs waiting for me.

These trades were of completely different sizes, one involving three cards and the other involving 156, but I am quite happy with both. I'll look at the smaller of the two now, and hit the larger one tomorrow.

This first trade is with blog reader Kary, from the cheesiest state around, Wisconsin. I don't believe he has a blog, but I heard from him in response to my free card offer. I was able to help him knock off some of his 2011 Series 2 and Update want list. In exchange, he was able to send me 3 cards from my Update want list But, in addition to helping me with reducing my want list down to only 10 cards needed, the cards he sent were fantastic.

While I would agree that the Dee Gordon card is probably the nicest one in the series, these three also had fantastic photographs. In particular, I really like the Salas card. While it is a fairly simple shot, I think the framing was fantastic. This is the kind of picture I wish I could take at the ballpark.





So, big thanks go out to Kary for cheering my up today. Not only did I get cards to help me complete a set, I got cards I can appreciate in their own right.

BOBOC - Pack 5

On to 1988 Topps Big, a set that was a modern take on the iconic 1956 set. The design is essentially identical with the front consisting of a head shot superimposed over an action shot. The back was similar as well, with vitals, a three panel cartoon, and two lines of statistics (previous year and career). Additionally, these cards are the same size as the 1956 set (2 5/8" by 3 3/4"). The obvious differences are the players name section, which replaces the yellow and red block from 1956 with a rainbow paint brush stroke. Additionally, the back of the 1988 Big employees more colors than the 56s.

So, let's take a quick look:







No Hall of Famers in this group, but I did get two of the top players of the era in Donnie Baseball and Carney Lansford.

Here is a look at the back of the card, where you can see what I was referring to above about using more colors.


When looking up Reynold's career statistics, I had a hard time categorizing him as any kind of offensive threat. He had a respectable .256 career batting average, but a positively mediocre .291 on base percentage. He hit a fair amount of triples, leading the NL with 12 in 1981, implying that he may have had some speed. But, over the course of his career, he has more triples (65) than stolen bases (58). Not sure what to think of him.


Did anyone actually ever send in for one of these sweaters? Just curious.

On a couple of separate notes:

Most of the cards I have promised have gone out over the last two days. At this point, I only owe Potch (Have to get a shipping box) and Napkin Doon (haven't got my Diamond Giveaway shipment yet.) So, the rest of you, keep an eye on your mail.

My posting may be slowing down here for a while. On Tuesday, I was given the fabulous opportunity to explore new job opportunities! Working for a Eurozone company does have it's disadvantages. But, I am not complaining. Between my savings and severance, I figure I have a two year cushion. But, buying baseball cards will need to go on hiatus for a while. I will probably spend more time exploring the cards I have and may blog about them. I don't really feel like I have found my voice as a blogger yet. Maybe this break will help me.

Anyways, it looks to be a beautiful day and my dogs are clamoring for their morning walkies. So, I best heed the call.

Why Free Cards?

While I think it is safe to say that baseball card bloggers are an extremely generous group, sometimes I wonder if all y'all are a little lacking in the smarts department (1).


Everyone that has claimed some of the cards I am unloading has asked what I want in return. While I will certainly take any duplicates you have that are on my want lists over there


But, my offer comes without any strings attached. Here is why:


I live in a relatively small farm house that was built in the 1950s and has a dearth of storage space. This is my storage closet. It be full.

The top shelf is my supply shelf: mailers, tape, toploaders, Ultra Pro sheets, you know the stuff. The second shelf holds vintage and Heritage sets I am working on or have completed. Third shelf is the 2011 sets, boxes of duplicates(2), and some empty binders. Fourth shelf, which you can't see, includes important work documents (I work from home). In front of the shelving unit is my wine cellar stored in the finest corrugated box money can buy. On top of that box are cards that I am preparing to ship out. Just out of frame to the top is a built in shelf containing boxes of personal and financial records, including a moving retrospective of my life as an adult, told in the medium of 1040 forms.

So, I really need to free up some space. I had the brilliant (BRILLIANT!!!) idea to try to sell off duplicates on EBay. A near complete set of Topps Series 1 (approx 300 cards out of the 330 card series - no duplicates) grossed me a whole five dollars. After EBay and Paypal took there cut of the action, I was left with.......not enough to make it worth the effort. Since I am constitutionally unable to throw out either books or baseball cards, I really need to find a home for the cards I don't need/want.

So, yeah, if you can help knock some cards off my want list, that would be super. But, I really need the space, so free means free. I would prefer to get them into the hands of someone who can appreciate them, rather than throw them out or throw them up in the barn loft amongst all the other crap I don't have space to store in the house. On that note, let me say that I'll hopefully have some more ready to offer up this coming weekend.


Footnotes:

(1) Just kidding. I am sure you are all quite smart. Handsome too.
(2) Note to self: if you have an impulse control problem when standing in the card aisle, it is probably a really bad idea to mix card purchases onto the grocery bill.

BOBOC - Pack 4

Here is pack 4, and the first of four packs of 1988 Donruss. For those of you that may be new here, BOBOC is the acronym I made up for a blaster of repackaged cards I bought recently. BOBOC literally means Big Ole Box of Crap.

So, let's look at the contents. This one wasn't as good as previous BOBOC packs in that there was no current Hall of Fame members in the pack, and only one legitimate HOF possibility. But, it did include a fair number of the premier players of the era.

147 - Scott Bradley (Seattle)
191 - Leon Durham (Chicago Cubs)
258 - Brian Downing (Angels)
324 - Rafael Palmiero (Chicago Cubs)


359 - Lance Parrish (Philadelphia)


437 - Gerald Perry (Atlanta)
460 - Jay Alrich (Milwaukee)
461 - Frank Tanana (Detroit)


471 - Dan Quiesenberry (Kansas City)


539 - Greg Maddux (Chicago Cubs)


549 - Dennis Martinez (Montreal)


571 - Peter Smith (Atlanta)
572 - Darnell Coles
639 - Damon Berryhill (Chicago Cubs)
Diamond Kings No. 6 -Ron Darling (NY Mets)

Overall, not too bad. But, in the end, I am no fan of 1988 Donruss. I think it is an ugly design. I generally don't like multi-colored borders, unless they are a simple, color blocked design, like 1975 Topps. The light blue and white backs aren't what I would consider aesthetically pleasing, but that is mitigated by the fact that they are far more readable than the backs of the 1970s Topps cards I prefer. Unfortunately, I have two more wax packs and a cello pack of this crap to go.

I cannot imagine myself ever wanting to put this set together. It is a little too early for alcohol to ease the posting process here. With the other packs of this stuff I'll try to post in the evenings so I can have a liberal pour of Woodford Reserve to help numb my senses to the horror and...umm...lubricate my...uh...literary endeavors

Such as they are.

Up Next: 1988 Topps Big

Guys Weekend - and Free Card Update

My wife is off goofing with her cousins in Las Vegas this weekend. So, I am on my own and the crummy weather gives me an excuse to not work on my honeydew list. So, what big things do I have planned?

Not much really. It is December, so money is tight. After all, there is Christmas shopping to do, quarterly payments on what seems to be eleventy different insurance policies, and.....well.....my wife is in Vegas.

There is a small card show at an LCS up in Edmond today. Quite coincidentally, I am going to be in Edmond today to pick up some medicine to doctor a sick horse. But, I have decided not to go. There is a bigger show next weekend in OKC, which will include all the same dealers. I plan to go to that show, though with little more than lint in my pocket. So, there was no point in going today.

I will stop by the LCS in South OKC, but probably only to pick up some sheets. I've gotten some oddball sized cards over the last few months and need to do a better job of protecting them. I may sneak a peak at a dollar box, but I don't have a lot of time at my disposal. A friend of my wife from Tulsa is in town this weekend for a jumping clinic and asked me to take some pictures of her new Gypsy Vanner horse.

Tonight, I'll work some more on getting my cards organized. Last night I watch "The Fellowship of the Ring" while getting some of my 2011 cards in order. Which brings me to:



While many of you have been gracious enough to take cards off of my hands, I still have way too many that I don't need. So, I am going to throw an offer out to all y'all:


This is the results of my organizing efforts last night. What you see is a 1600 count box of Topps flagship (Gah! Did I really buy that much retail this year?) This is all my base card duplicates from Series 1,2 and Update along with all of the inserts I pulled. There is also some Diamond and liquorfractor parallels mixed in. In the foreground is a partial set of the 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game. There are 89 unique cards (90 total cards) out of the 145 card base set.

You want either or both of these lots? Claim them!

Trade with Card Anathema

I've been a little remiss in posting lately. I have had a hard time maintaining productivity at work, too. Must be something about the season.

Anyways, I recently completed a trade with Matt over at Card Anathema, where we swapped 1971 cards. I took his want list with me to a couple LCS and tried to help him out some. I managed to find some, although I ended up misplacing a stack somewhere, only to find them a couple weeks later. Hopefully, that second mailer got to Matt by now. Sorry about that.

In return, he sent me some of his duplicate 1971 cards. The swap was probably a little lopsided, since I only sent him cards from the first 5 series, but got around a dozen of the rarer high number cards back. And, they all weren't "commons" either. There were some cards he sent me that are valued at a significant premium over the typical card in that seventh series. And they are in fantastic condition. They most definitely stand out as the cream of the crop on their respective pages in the binder. Let's take a look at some:


Also known as Richard, Richie, and Dick.


Nice airbrushed cap.


It appears that Al borrowed Gerry's cap.




I can be a little slow at times. It wasn't until just now that I realized that this set has both team rookie cards and position rookie cards. I feel like an idjit and will have to go back and look at my 1974 set and see if it was the same way. I am guessing not, since 1974 is a 660 card set versus 752 for 1971. But, I'll look anyways.




I figured it was time to look at how much progress I have made on 1971 and get a sense of how far I have yet to go. I have

516 out of 523 low numbered cards (with 23 cards needing to be upgraded)
51 out of 100 cards in the 6th Series (10 needing upgrade)
72 out of 129 cards in the 7th Series (6 needing upgrade)

So, I have 639 out of the total 752 cards, with an additional 39 needing upgrade. 152 cards to go. That is kinda depressing, since most of those cards are the semi-high and high numbers. But, I figured it would be a long slog, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised when the numbers bear that out.

Anyways, a huge thank you goes out to Matt. I am pleased beyond words with what you sent.